


Tender

by caxcix



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Online Dating, Tinder, i'm sure i'll have more tags when i write more, it's gonna be awkward
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-28
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2019-12-25 16:23:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18265013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caxcix/pseuds/caxcix
Summary: I got inspired by an edit on instagram to write an au where Dan and Phil meet on Tinder.





	1. Swipe Left

Dan could not tell you what had possessed him to make an account on this crap of an app, but here he was, typing into a little box about how he liked video games and shiba inus. It had taken him far too long to even decide that _that_ small bit of information was acceptable to share with the world of internet dating. He decided, finally, after a good chunk of minutes of debating that if someone didn’t share at least those two interests, he wasn’t interested.

His left thumb hovered over the confirm button on his screen, still not entirely sure he wanted to go through with this. He was a 24 year old guy with the face of a fifteen year old and a work ethic similar to that of a coma patient. He’d much rather sit inside all day and play Mario Kart than go out and socialize or drag himself to the stupid shop down the street that (for some bizarre reason) had given him a manager position about a month ago. He wasn’t complaining about that really, as it definitely made rent a bit easier. However, that didn’t change the fact that he’d rather die than go in to work five days a week.

He took a deep breath and quickly tapped the screen. Like a fool, he managed to _miss the button_ and groaned at his own ridiculous anxiety. _It’s just the internet, for fuck’s sake. Just push the stupid button._ His second attempt was much more successful than the first. His screen reloaded to the well known screen of Tinder. He stared at the female face in front of him, smiling widely and scrolled up to see her bio describing herself as an extremely active and outdoorsy person. Definitely a swipe left. 

There were quite a few women that came up as an option for him before he got a male profile. He had set his sexuality to both men and women but wasn’t sure how surprised he was to find that it was majority female.

Quickly sick of the site, Dan clicked out of the app and opted for twitter instead. He was sure he’d be able to find some funny memes or whatever to catch his attention. And if not? He’ll just swap it out for tumblr or instagram and just keep rotating until he fell asleep. 

When he clicked Twitter open, he wasn’t exactly shocked to find about twenty notifications waiting for him. He had somehow managed to accumulate a pretty vast following with his stupid jokes and #relatablecontent. He didn’t entirely understand what the internet could find interesting with him, but he’d take what he could get.

At some point, while scrolling down his timeline, he managed to fall asleep and when he woke up, his phone was completely dead. And he had every intention of plugging it in to charge, but the thought of a good bowl of cereal and some netflix seemed much more appealing and his phone was left abandoned and twisted up in his bedsheets. 

Dan had been sat on his sofa for quite a few hours, a couple episodes deep in a new series, when there was a loud knock on his front door. He wasn’t entirely sure who it could be in the middle of a Tuesday, but, nonetheless, he got up and pulled on a pair of sweats that happened to be hanging off a chair in his makeshift dining area and mini jogged to his door.

“Louise?” Dan pulled the door open and tilted his head in surprise at his close friend and neighbor. She had Darcy held up on her hip and a very desperate look on her face.

“Dan! Are you busy today?” Her voice easily matched the frantic tone of her voice and it took Dan a second to stumble out the intended words.

“I- Yeah, I don’t have work and-” He had an idea as to the next question out of her mouth and wasn’t entirely sure he was the best man for the job.

“Can you watch her for a couple hours? I got called last minute about a work thing an-” She looked like she was on the verge of tears.

“Of course. Here, let me take her. Go. Do what you gotta do.” Dan quickly reached out to take the small child from her mother and gave Louise a sympathetic smile as she thanked him profusely while simultaneously rushing down the hall and out of his sight.

Dan shut the door and walked back to his lounge. He had built up a small collection of toys and necessary food for the 4 year old over the time spent growing close to her mother. He didn’t really ever watch the child on his own, but she did spend a bit of time over at his flat and it was far too much of a hassle to continue carrying toys and crap between the two if her presence was going to be as permanent and it seemed. 

“So, what are we going to be up to today?” His voice automatically entered ‘baby talk’ and he’d be cringing if there were other people around to judge him. But, they were alone and he didn’t feel any shame in being cute with a small child. Instead of being insulted at her lack of attention, he just laughed while she wiggled in his arms.

Dan let her down after bringing her upstairs and she immediately ran to the little tub of toys behind the couch and started pulling some stuff out. Dan moved towards the door that led into the lounge and shut it to ensure she didn’t leave the room without being aware. He sat down and changed the channel to something a little more kid friendly and kicked his feet up, ready to relax.

“Hey, Darcy?” Dan paused the show around 5pm and waited for the little blonde head to pop up from behind the sofa. It only took a second for the smiling face to show up with curiosity and Dan pulled his feet off the coffee table in preparation to get up. “Are you hungry?” 

She seemed to think for a minute, tapping her chin adorably and Dan resisted the urge to coo at her. She was too old for that, he thought. “Yes!” she declared, tossing a fist in the air. He failed to hold back his giggle at her excitement for food and directed the small child to the dining table. She climbed up on the chair on her own while Dan moved into the kitchen to throw something together. He was pretty sure he had some frozen veggies and grilled chicken for her. Louise was kind of a stickler for healthy eating for her child and it seemed to help Dan aim towards a similar lifestyle. If it wasn’t for this kid, he’d probably be too out of shape to walk.

It only took him about ten minutes to get the food ready since it was all microwavable. He just had to wait for it to cool down enough for Darcy. Once it was, he sat a plate down on the table in front of her with a grand “Bon Appetit!” The little girl giggled and picked up the plastic fork, diving into her food. Dan looked at her with an adoring smile for a minute before picking up his own utensils to chow down.

He had thought about kids before in his life, though he usually dismissed it with the assumption that he would ruin a child. After Darcy came around, though, he seemed to start changing his mind slowly. It was still quite a bit away and clearly, he didn’t even have a partner to consider it with. Some people can do the single parent thing. Dan could not.

For the second time that day, there was a knock on the door. Similar to the first, it sounded extremely loud and frantic. Dan looked up at Darcy, who was still taking small bites of peas, and towards the lounge door before setting his fork down. “Hey, Darcy.” Dan made a move to catch her attention. “Stay here at the table, okay?” 

Darcy just nodded and went back to eating while Dan made a move towards the front door. He didn’t bother looking to see who it might be and just pulled the door open.

“Hey, you didn’t text me back and I got worried.” Louise moved into the flat, letting Dan close the door. The two began back towards the lounge, “It’s okay, though, because I got everything finished. What happened, though? I trusted that everything was okay because I trust you, but-” Louise looked over at Dan with confused eyes and he suddenly remembered that device he jokingly called his lifeline. How he forgot about it was a whole fucking world of questions.

“Cra- crud,” Dan corrected, glancing at Darcy, “I forgot it upstairs. I’m so sorry to have worried you. I don’t even know how I managed to forget about it…” Dan trailed off, glancing in the direction of his bedroom and shaking his head. _How even?_

Louise shrugged. “Well, point is, everything is okay and I can take her home and leave you to whatever it is you do in your free time.” Louise laughed and moved towards her daughter. They talked for a second quietly, mostly asking how Darcy’s day was, and Dan crossed his arms, leaning against the door frame. 

“Bye, Darcy.” Dan waved at the small child after giving Louise a hug. He waited until they exited the building before jogging to his bedroom. He was still trying wrap his mind around the fact that he had managed to spend the entire day without his phone. 

“Where the fuck is the stupid thing?” Dan mumbled to himself as he yanked the blankets and sheets off his bed. At first he thought he could just push some stuff and find it, but clearly that was not the case.

As he chucked back one of his blankets, he heard a loud _thump_ and winced, knowing it was indeed his cell phone. Hoping with every ounce of his body that it didn’t crack as it hit the floor, he carefully shifted the blankets again and spotted it face down on the floor. Dan reached to pick it up and let out a very loud sigh of relief to find that his phone was still intact and thankfully not damaged this time.

He spent a few seconds contemplating whether he wanted to plug it in by his bed or in the lounge before deciding he’d just go back out to the lounge and finish the show he was watching before the kid came over. 

When he got into the lounge, he flopped down on the couch and reached for the extra long cord to plug his phone in. A few seconds later, the familiar apple logo popped up on the screen and he turned away from it, knowing full well it’ll take a moment for any notifications to be received.

He fought himself against checking his phone until the vibrations stopped and tried to focus his eyes on the tv screen, but the moment it seemed that his notifications had finished coming in, he grabbed his phone and punched in his passcode. With a glance at the battery, he takes note that it’s barely at about 3% but it is charging, so it’ll be fine eventually. 

The first notification that catches his attention is from YouTube, letting him know that one of the people he was subscribed to had posted a video at some point in the day. He contemplated watching it at that exact moment, but ended up deciding he’d rather pull it up later and enjoy it when he wasn’t tired and focused on cleaning out his notifications. He opened up the few texts he missed from Louise, feeling a brief flit of guilt before clicking out of his messaging app. He left twitter for last, genuinely curious to see who his new followers were, and scrolled down to the bottom of the notification center. 

“Someone matched with me?” Dan clicked on the notification from Tinder and waited for the screen to boot up. When the profile came up, he was a little confused at the picture this person had provided. It only took him a whole two minutes to realize it was an old meme and he rolled his eyes. This person has to be either extremely close to Dan’s same humor or really bad with the internet. 

“Alright, Phil, age 28. Who are you?”


	2. Work Drags

The bio of this Phil guy was very daunting. It seemed that the old meme was definitely calling to someone who would find it ironically hilarious as opposed to someone who just wasn’t sure when an era has ended. That was a relief to Dan, but the only reason he came to this conclusion was because of his bio. He was a _massive_ nerd. While Dan had only mentioned the two things he found most important, this guy had put in a whole list of crap he enjoyed and Dan was shocked to find himself pleased by just about all of it.

And yeah, he really thought this guy sounded great. Which is why it was really hard for him to decide if he wanted to match with him. To Dan, there was a fine line that these interests balanced on and Phil could be a really easy going guy that he shares interests with or he could be way too serious about gaming, one of those Momma’s boy, basement living types.

On a random surge of confidence, Dan swiped his screen to the right and held his breath. He was really nervous about whether _Phil_ would spot the notification right away and if he would initiate conversation. A few minutes passed and he decided to close out of the app and try to take his mind off of it. Instead, he turned his focus back on the show, his anxiety still simmering below the surface. It took quite a bit of willpower, but he eventually managed to get back into the show.

It was when he was coming up on the eighth episode of this series that he realized it might be a good time to get ready for bed. It was nearing midnight and he was at least trying to put himself to bed at a close to normal time. Besides, he had work the next day and he really hated feeling exhausted during his whole shift.

Sighing loudly, Dan shut off the big screen and made it a point to grab his phone. He plugged it into the charger by his side table before heading to the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face. He was trying really hard to keep up with self care these days and he was feeling pretty good because of it. Obviously he still had off days, but who doesn’t?

When he went back to his room, he checked his phone one more time and with the disappointment of ‘no new notifications’, he flipped the light off and buried himself under the blankets. He kept his eyes shut and slowed his breathing in an attempt to trick his body into sleeping and eventually, it worked.

The next morning, when he woke up, Dan mentally thanked himself last night for enforcing his own bedtime. One of the hardest parts of being an adult really seemed to be developing a routine and sticking to it. At least, it was for Dan.

He had about an hour before he needed to leave and good thing because far too much time would more than definitely make him late. If he got caught up in a video or a show, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from finishing it and that always resulted in racing down the street to get there on time. Really, who decided to promote _him_?

One thing he had forgotten to do, however, was lay out his uniform. It wasn’t a difficult uniform to deal with, but his mess of laundry was. He started tossing clothes out of his way in an attempt to lessen the struggle to find his favorite work pants and nearly fifteen minutes had passed before he remembered that he left them in the lounge. 

“Stop taking your clothes off everywhere just ‘cause you live alone, Howell.” Dan shook his head at himself, fully aware that he was speaking out loud to himself in an empty apartment. It’s not like it really made a difference, though. He knew he’d continue to strip in the lounge and he’d continue to forget his clothes everywhere, but self care is one step at a time and he’s lucky he even has the parts of his life together that he does.

When Dan was finally dressed, he looked to the clock to calculate how much time he had left. He could easily throw together a bowl of cereal like he does every day and leave right on time. He thought about using the few extra minutes to actually cook something, but realized with a snort that he was both too lazy and too impatient to attempt that. He’d save that for a day when his ability to afford breakfast wasn’t relying on his ability to move quickly.

On the rare occasion that Dan managed to hit the sidewalk on time, he found himself a bit on the happier side of the day. He was humming to himself and regretfully recalled that he hadn’t brought his headphones with him. It wasn’t a very often situation where he had the chance to listen to music on work days and he hadn’t picked up the habit of thinking about them.

It was only a couple of minutes of quiet walking that he realized he didn’t check his phone before stuffing it in his pocket. He knew it was fully charged since he had left it on the charger all night despite hearing all the time that it’s not good for the battery. 

There were a few notifications from a variety of social media apps and the one for the YouTube video was still sitting there. He chewed on his bottom lip while clicking through the random follows and comments that were left on his posts to clear out the notifications. Just as he was closing the recently apps, he spotted the Tinder app again and found himself clicking on it despite the lack of notifications. Maybe it had glitched and not sent him anything?

Nope. Still dry. 

Dan stared down at the only name he had matched with and contemplated being the first to send a message. It’s not like he was incapable and it wasn’t exactly one or the other’s responsibility, now was it? He was just hoping it wouldn’t have had to been him. He decided that if he was still waiting on a message by the end of his shift, he’d send one and hope for the best. 

“Hey, Dan!” One of the newer workers was behind a register, probably checking his area to make sure it was stocked. It was about 8:45am and it wasn’t exactly surprising that nobody was at the shop. It wasn’t particularly busy as it was and not many people in the area came out of hiding before 10am. 

“Hey, Joe. Is Kate in?” It felt weird to wear the manager vest around the general workers sometimes. He didn’t really see himself as fit to be at a higher level than them, but his boss seemed to and he didn’t want to disappoint.

“Yeah, I think she’s in the back.” Joe hooked his thumb back towards the office and continued to stand there awkwardly. 

“You should probably double check stock.” Dan tilted his head towards the isles of produce and various other products, well aware that this guy hadn’t been around long enough to feel confident in his choices. 

Joe nodded eagerly and rushed off to clean up the shelves and Dan rolled his eyes in amusement before heading back to the office. He pushed the door open and walked over to the old desk on the other side of the room where a blonde girl was sitting. He pulled open a drawer and dropped his wallet and keys in and grabbed his name tag before turning his attention on Kate.

“Hey, how long you in for?” Dan leaned back against the desk and glanced over at the clock to see that he still had a few minutes before he needed to clock in. He started fiddling with the tag to get it situated on his vest while waiting for her answer.

Kate pulled her glasses off her face and rubbed her eyes before responding. “I only have another hour today. It was a short shift. I mainly needed to open and throw together the schedule. I have classes to get to at noon.” Kate was young, younger than Dan. She had been working here for far too long for a 22 year old girl and he was amazed at her dedication to the job. If he had to go to school and work at the same time, he was sure he’d crack under the pressure. It’s one of the reasons he never got his degree.

“You’ve been up for a while then.” He wasn’t asking. He knew she’d been here since 6am at least. “If you want to get out and take a nap, I can cover for you. It can’t be super easy to push yourself like that. Besides, it’s pretty empty today.” Dan glanced back over at the door to see that Joe was randomly shifting things around, probably already finished checking stock. Not only was it a small shop, it wasn’t likely that anyone had come through yet and moved anything.

“Are you sure? I can handle an hour less of pay. It’s not a big deal. But I don’t want to dump this on you alone for the next three hours. Felix won’t be in until noon.” Kate genuinely seemed concerned and he wasn’t sure if it was because she was compassionate or if she had no faith in him. Hell, _he_ had no faith in him.

“I still would have been here for two. Go on, get out. I’ll be fine. Who else is coming in right now? Tyler? Connor? I have the general guys. We’ll be fine. Besides, it’s a Wednesday morning. No one is coming in before noon.” Dan made it a point to nudge Kate out of the chair and gesture towards her belongings in the corner of the room. 

“Alright. Just go hang up the schedule. It’s over there.” She pointed to the stapled papers on top of a filing cabinet. “I’m going to go. Thank you. Good luck.” Kate stretched up on her toes and Dan leaned down a little to meet her when she pressed a gentle kiss on his cheek and gave him a hug before waving another goodbye and walking out of the office. 

“Guess I’m back here for a while.” Dan let out a huff and sat down on the desk chair. He’d probably spend a good chunk of time answering any of the calls that came in and watching the security cameras while the others worked the registers. When it got busier, he’d probably go out and help or walk around the store. Until then, it was this tiny office and his never ending boredom.

About a half hour went by before a customer had come in. Dan sat up and watched the woman walk around the dairy section in the security screen and found that this had to be a lot worse than working the register. It was easier to get through the day when he had stuff to do. Since Kate always got everything done, she usually left him out here bored out of his mind. 

Deciding to go check things out around the shop and ‘do his job’, Dan got up and took a deep breath before exiting the office. He waved over at the two guys behind registers and headed towards the restrooms to check in Tyler was in there. To his relief, all three of the workers had shown up and Tyler was just cleaning up the restrooms.

Just as he turned around, a soft voice piped up and he nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw the shopper standing directly behind him. “Hello, how can I help you?” Dan put on his kindest smile and had to ignore the little voice in his head telling him how bad he is at faking cheerful interaction.

“I was actually wondering if you guys carried this particular brand of bread? I couldn’t find any with the rest of the bread, but I figured I would ask anyways.” She smiled back at him and flashed the picture of the label she had pulled up on her phone. Dan knew that if it wasn’t on the shelf, they didn’t carry it, but he figured he would humor her and go to check. It at least gave him something to do.

“I’m just going to head into the back and look for you. I’ll be right back.” He awkwardly backed away before turning and heading towards the storage room. He hadn’t had a lot of reason to go back there in his time working at this place, but he had a general idea of where everything is. He made his way over to the bread and just as he thought, they didn’t have the brand she was looking for. 

When he returned, he wasn’t exactly sure where the woman had gone and felt extremely awkward trying to spot her again. He went over to the office to glance at the cameras and see if he could spot her, but to his dismay he could not. Figuring she might have gone to the bathroom, he decided to go back to the general area she had found him and wait for a few minutes before giving up. 

She didn’t come back and he wasn’t exactly frustrated, but he wasn’t really sure what to do with his time. At this point, he figured he would send Joe on a break and take his spot, hoping that someone came in and actually bought something.

A few more customers managed to make their way inside before 11 rolled around and Dan was resisting the urge to bang his head against the counter. Days like this were by far the _worst._ How exactly was he supposed to get the time to pass any quicker? 

Just before he was about to go back into the office and play games on his phone, a whole hoard of people came into the building. He was actually extremely taken aback to see this many people rush into the shop. He figured some event had to be going on nearby or something for such a large group to direly need something from the local market. 

The line built up then, with three of the registers working at the same time. Tyler had gone on his first break a couple seconds before the rush and he was more than likely sitting back in the break room with a smug look on his face. Well, calling it a break room was a bit of a stretch as it was just a tucked away corner where crates and boxes got tossed momentarily, but it was where everyone went to relax and get away from the noise when they were allowed to.

“Thanks, come again!” Dan smiled at the last customer in his line and just barely managed to let go of his breath when he heard the phone ringing. He hurried back to the office just in time to pick it up.

“Hello?” Dan forgot to say the name of the shop, but it wasn’t that huge of a deal. It’s not like anyone was there to call him out on it.

“Hi,” the voice was feminine and had a bit of a energy to it that instantly made Dan’s introverted ass tired, “I was wondering if you guys were hiring?” 

Dan tried to rack his brain for any information regarding open positions that he knew about and after coming up with nothing, he decided to pull up the information on the work computer. “Just a second.” 

She didn’t respond, but he could still hear her on the other end.

“It looks like we are. If you’d like to come in and pick up a, uh, form,” Dan rolled his eyes at himself for the momentary brain fart, “You can come in anytime between 7am and 10pm.” Something about this moment made him feel very grown up and it seemed to hit him right then that this was _real_ and he had an actual _job._ How bizarre.

She thanked him and hung up before he had a chance to respond to her, but it didn’t bother him much. He wasn’t a particularly spectacular conversationalist himself. Shrugging it off, he went back out on the floor and to his luck, the rest of the day went by much faster than the morning.

When his shift was over, he let out a big sigh and clocked out before anyone had a chance to ask him to do anything. If he got caught up in something right then, he was stuck here for far longer than he was willing to bear. Doing his best to remain unnoticed, he rushed out of the shop with the couple non perishables he had purchased during his lunch break in a bag and his phone in his unoccupied hand.

He had a text and a few more social media notifications, but still nothing from Tinder. Why was it bothering him so much? It’s not like this guy had left him on read, or like he even knew him _at all._

Instead of focusing on the lack of a message, he decided to check that text. It was actually three of them, but he hadn’t noticed since they were all from the same person.

_Hey._

_Daniel_

_Oh you’re at work aren’t you? Let’s go out for drinks after, on me. Get back to me when you’re off._

Dan considered the offer, weighing the pros and cons of going for a few drinks. He could make the decision to not drink too much and he worked a later shift tomorrow so it wasn’t like he had to be up at 7am again. He decided he would answer PJ when he got back to the flat.

Inside, he dropped the bag down on the counter and pulled his phone back out of his pocket. He almost didn't bother to change, but realized he really wasn't going out for drinks in his work uniform. He set his phone down next to the bag and went to his room, trying to quickly throw together an okay outfit and get back to his friend.

_Yeah, I’ll go for drinks._

Dan took a deep breath after sending the text and stared down at his screen. Then, with another rare burst of confidence, Dan clicked open the stupid dating app.

_Hey_

He pressed send on the first try.


	3. Who Knows, Who Cares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan and PJ go to the movies.

_Message sent._

Well there’s no turning back now, is there? Dan chewed on his lip for a second before closing out the app and pushing his phone back in his pocket. He knew he’d be meeting PJ at the pub around the corner and didn’t bother asking. It was the only place they ever really went and if they were changing it up, he would have said so.

“Hey, mate.” PJ’s voice carried the short distance between the front door and the spot at the bar that Dan had claimed as his own. His friend plopped down on the stool next to him and waved a finger at the bartender, asking for a simple glass of whiskey and a water. 

“So, how was work?” PJ tapped his fingers on the counter while he waited for the bartender to get his drink for him. His eyes weren’t focused on Dan, but he did manage to glance over at him when he asked the question.

“It was as fine as it usually is. You?” Dan took another sip of whatever drink the guy had placed in front of him. He had asked the man to surprise him and he was pretty sure it was a malt of some sort.

“Considering I actually enjoy my job, it went fairly well. I was actually going to ask you to go out yesterday, but you didn’t answer my call.” PJ gave Dan a pointed look and took a swig of the drink that was just placed in front of him. He nodded a thanks at the man and shifted over in his seat to focus more on his friend.

“Well, not all of us managed to stay in school long enough to obtain a degree for their dream job.” Dan raised an eyebrow. “I’m fine, though. It pays the bills and I’m not miserable.” 

“Have you, you know.” PJ gestured vaguely at some question floating in the air. “Talked to anyone recently?” 

“Are you asking me if I’m interested in anyone?” Another sip. “You’re not exactly my type, Peej.” Dan cracked a half smile when his friend rolled his eyes at the joke.

“Piss off. You know what I mean. Any new ladies?” Sometimes Dan really regretted the years that he was barely coming out of the closet and felt the need to say that he was far more into women than he was men. It was so far from the truth, but he felt too embarrassed about it years later that he didn’t want to correct anyone. “Or boys. I know that’s still an option… Right?”

“Yes, PJ. I’m still into dudes.” Dan couldn’t help but hear himself lower his voice still, despite claiming to be ‘out and proud’. One of these days it wouldn’t feel like such a scary thing for someone to view him as anything other than gay. He wasn’t, but that didn’t stop people from making assumptions.

“But you haven’t met anyone, yet?” Dan was sure they’d had this conversation over a week ago and he wasn’t sure how PJ thought the answer had changed in 10 days. Things like that didn’t change in 10 days.

He had the urge to check his phone, though. He wanted to see if this mysterious meme lover had responded to him. He didn’t want to seem extraordinarily desperate, though, and figured he might as well focus on spending time with his friend instead of staring at his phone all evening.

“Hm, nope.” Dan finished his drink and pushed it away from him, already ready to start throwing back some water. It definitely was not his night to get tipsy. He may or may not have spent the majority of the first few months at this shop going in with a hangover and he was really hoping to put the dark days behind him.

“That ‘hm’ hints at something else, but I’ll leave it alone for now.” Now PJ finished his own drink. “Okay, I had a reason why I wanted to go out for drinks tonight. I’m going out of town for about a week, straight out to LA. I know, I know. I’m rich. Anyways,” PJ waved his hand around, “I’ll be gone for a bit and really busy. I didn’t want you to be lonely so I’m giving you a few days’ heads up.” PJ gave Dan a cheeky smile and he just rolled his eyes in response, pushing PJ’s shoulder.

“Oi, whatever. I’ll be fine. I have other friends.” Dan scoffed and took a drink of PJ’s water. PJ scowled at Dan for taking his drink but brushed it off otherwise. It wasn’t like Dan’s lonely mouth had been anywhere anyways.

“Let’s go to the cinema.” PJ turned to Dan suddenly and he paused midway through the drink of water. He had no idea what films were out at the moment and wasn’t even sure he’d want to see any of them, anyways.

“Do we have to?” Dan whined.

“Well now that you’re acting like that, yes. Yes we do.” PJ slapped some bills on the counter before grabbing Dan by his sweater and dragging him out of the pub. He called back a ‘thank you’ before the door swung open and he finally let the taller lad go. 

“Alright, let’s see what they have out.” PJ pulled out his phone and was no doubt pulling up a list of recent releases. Dan took this moment as an excuse to pull his phone out of his pocket and check his notifications. His eyes scrolled through the app names on his lockscreen before he spotted the Tinder app. 

His thumb was moving faster than his thoughts and the messaging screen was open before he was entirely sure he was prepared for it. Dan bit down on his lip again, nearly stumbling over his own feet. His phone’s service was shit out here and it was taking longer than usual to show up. 

_Hey :)_

The message was on his screen under Phil’s name and Dan had to prevent himself from reacting out loud. If PJ knew he was actually trying to talk to someone, he would insert himself and hound Dan on details constantly. He wanted to feel this out on his own.

Now what the fuck does he say?

“... Dan?” PJ had stopped walking and Dan looked up from his voice to figure out why. PJ had his eyebrows furrowed and his phone was no longer in sight.

“What was that?”

“I asked you what film you wanted to see… Were you not listening to me? Who are you talking to?” PJ moved to look at Dan’s phone screen and he quickly locked his phone and shoved it back into his pocket. PJ narrowed his eyes at him, but left it alone. “Okay, so which one?”

“Er, whichever you’d like. I’m not feeling picky right now.” Dan knew he’d regret his offer to let PJ pick in the long run, but he didn’t really feel like making the decisions right now and it was just easier to sit through a crappy film than it was to try to figure out which title sounded the most interesting.

“Alright. Whatever you say.” PJ shrugged and the pair continued to walk down the sidewalk, stranger’s message completely forgotten about. 

When they reached the cinema, the pair still hadn’t come to a consensus on which film they wanted to watch, so they ended up doing an eenie meenie situation. They ended up on a film neither had heard of and instead of just going again and discarding the film, they just decided to give it a shot.

“This better be good,” Dan grumbled, handing the man behind the register his money. He really rather not waste the little bit of his check left over on pointless and wasteful entertainment, but he really would like to spend some time with his friend before he left for a while. It wasn’t like he spent much time with anyone else and if he was left alone for a while, at least he utilized the latest chance at spending quality time with another human being.

“You paid for the tickets, so I’ll buy food. Large popcorn?” PJ glanced at Dan, but knew he wouldn’t have to wait for a response. They got the same thing every time and Dan really wasn’t keen to change. They collected their movie snacks and headed to the theatre they were directed to.

“I didn’t realize we would have so long before the movie actually started. This is why you have to plan these things in advance.” Dan shoved a handful of popcorn in his mouth while PJ munched on the pretzel he had gotten for himself. Dan stared at the pretzel for a moment before deciding to reach over and tear a piece off, dipping it in the cheese and proceeded to shove that piece of food in his mouth as well.

“You’re a fatass.” PJ shook his head, but they both knew he was just joking. If it came from anyone else, Dan might have actually took it to heart, but it was PJ and that was just how they talked to each other.

About twenty minutes went by before the lights went down and Dan obnoxiously shushed PJ with a finger pressed to his own lips. PJ just rolled his eyes and sunk down in his seat, focusing his eyes on the movie. They both really hoped it would be a good film.


	4. Holy F*ck

Dan shut the door as quietly as he could behind him. Although there was nobody to wake in his flat, he didn’t want to be that asshole of a neighbor that slams the door in the middle of the night. Instead of stopping anywhere along the way, he headed straight for his room, determined to climb into bed and just scroll through his phone until he fell asleep. He chucked his keys on to his dresser and started yanking his uncomfortably snug clothing off of his body.

After he was changed into a pair of shorts, he stopped to stare at his bedroom door, contemplating actually going down the hall to the bathroom to brush his teeth and rinse his face. How important was that self care again? It’d be so much easier to just throw himself down in his blankets and ignore it for the night. But, he knew if he brushed it off, he might start up a habit of brushing it off and drive himself right back into that hole.

“Fuck,” Dan mumbled to no one but himself, giving his bed one last wistful look before trudging out to do his nightly routine. He glanced at the clock right before he stepped out of the doorway and noticed that it was nearly 2 a.m. “Really fuck.” Dan let out an irritated huff and continued on his way. 

Even though it only took him a few minutes to do these few simple tasks, it was harder to kickstart the gears towards doing the right thing than it was to complete whatever it was he had to push himself to do. It was the small stuff that he had to keep up with to keep the big picture rolling. He had to try for the little things.

Finally finished getting ready for bed, Dan dramatically threw himself into bed and winced at the creaking noise it let out in response. He felt around on his nightstand for his phone for a second and rolled over into a more comfortable position once it was safely locked in his grip.

“Alright, what to do, what to do…” Dan’s thumb hovered over his screen after he unlocked it, swiping back and forth between apps in an attempt to see which one was more appealing. It took him a few minutes before he noticed that stupid dating app and realized he had never replied to the guy.

Dan sat up a bit, more awake when he realized that he had to come up with a functional response to this real life human being that didn’t come off as pathetic or awkward. He clicked open the messages at stared at that little smiley face, chewing on his lip while he thought out a reply. 

_Hey!_

Dan deleted the letters he had just typed out with a shake of his head. That was so redundant and it left so little open for conversation. He tried again.

_How’s it going?_

“God no. What the hell do you say to someone you’ve never met? This is too fucking hard. Maybe I should just…” Dan relaxed back into his pillows again and continued to stare at the bright screen, his stress over a stupid little message far worse than it should be.

_sorry im getting back to you so late, i was in town and have shit service so i couldnt reply til i got home_

Before he could overthink it, he hit send and let out the breath he was holding. He decided he wasn’t going to try to have great grammar because it would only set _Phil_ up for disappointment. Better to know that he didn’t give a shit about grammar from the get go.

Dan clicked out of the app, assuming he wouldn’t receive a response from this guy in the middle of the night and decided to play a game instead. He wasn’t particularly interested in dealing with social media at the moment and if anything, he’d wear himself out and fall asleep quickly this way. 

Just as his eyes were starting to droop, his phone buzzed and the screen lit up. He cracked open one eye to look at the notification and saw that Phil had indeed responded in the middle of the night. 

“A night owl, are we?” Dan blinked away the bleariness and waited for his eyes to focus on the screen to read the message.

 _thats totally cool, i tend to stay up pretty late as it is, so you caught me at just the right time_

At the end of the message, he had tacked on a little tongue face emoji and Dan found himself cracking a bit of a smile. He wasn’t exactly sure why he found this stupid little emoji endearing, but it was definitely a good sign, right?

_i sure hope you dont have to get up early or youre in for a bad day_

Dan hoped he wasn’t being dry, he really wasn’t sure how to keep a conversation going, but he added on the awkward smile emoji last second and went for the same move of pressing send before he could overthink it. 

The response came instantly.

_i avoid getting up early at all costs, people who can run around at 7 a.m scare me truly_

Dan wanted to take it as a good sign that he kept adding on emojis and little faces, but he wasn’t sure if it really meant anything. They were just emoticons, used to express some type of tone when you can’t see the other person’s face. It couldn’t mean anything.

_right? The psychos_

When he pressed send, he cursed himself for not adding anything on to keep the conversation going.

_does that mean you work later in the day or are you just living in your mothers basement?_

“Please don’t be weirded out. Please, ple-” Dan stopped his mumbled pleas when Phil responded.

_oh definitely living in my mums basement like a rat, feeding off the leftovers_

_im just joking, i dont exactly have an office job persay_

Dan paused, unsure of how to respond. He was trying to come up with a funny response, but Phil beat him to it and sent a third message. He had to bite back from smiling.

_i didnt realize how odd that would sound until i sent it, i just work on films and stuff_

_er, not weird ones, just like suspense and sci-fi kind of stuff i swear_

Dan laughed a little out loud, a bizarre sound to hear in his typically silent cave of a bedroom, especially in the middle of the night. 

_congrats you managed to make me scare myself_

_i was laughing in the silence of my bedroom_

_also my job is especially boring that sounds a lot better, weird films or not_

The little clock on Dan’s dresser warned him that it was nearing 3 a.m and he let out a heavy sigh, knowing full well that he really should go to sleep now. He should have been asleep hours ago. He just really didn’t want to stop talking to Phil despite barely knowing him. It was like holding this conversation in the middle of the night in the dark was keeping it from coming into a reality. It existed in that little bubble of time that doesn’t exist and when he wakes up, the anxiety of talking to someone he doesn’t know will kick in again and he’ll ruin it all.

_i think all jobs are boring in their own ways really, nobody wants to do work even if its something you enjoy, somehow being paid to do it makes it less enjoyable not more_

_despite this lack of a desk job, i should be falling asleep in the next few minutes but i do hope you’ll be up to talk again tomorrow you seem cool enough_

_jeez that sounded so bad and awkward i hope im not destroying my chances by making you cringe to death_

Dan didn’t even think twice about his response before he sent it.

_id love to talk to you tomorrow phil :)_

Dan fixed his gaze on the screen so intensely that his vision was actually starting to go out of focus when Phil replied.

_goodnight :)_

Dan let out a soft sigh of relief. It hadn’t gone horribly and maybe this could become something more than just a guy he texts until the conversation dies out and disappears. Maybe it’ll go somewhere.

_gn :p_

He barely managed to plug his phone into his charger and set it on the side table before curling into his blankets and drifting off to sleep. He didn’t really dream of anything, but it still felt as if this sleep was a bit more peaceful than most of them are.


End file.
